I understand how, when faced with the horrid govt. corruption and control by the mafia, that people would turn to Castro.

I can also understand that in the post-cold war world there is a desire to re-make the evils of communist dictators into gentle meanderings of caring men.

However. Castro is a DICTATOR. He controls EVERY PERSONS' LIFE. On his word, people can and do disappear. There is a lack of freedom there that we decry in an instant. Yet, I laugh at how many people here make excuses for him.

So now that a transfer to Raul is being made... I ask again...

Don't we have some plans someplace that we can dust off?

(Rev... this wasn't at all directed towards your post... just thought i should say that after I realized what you wrote!)

No, no, that's fine...I'm no fan of Fidel Castro. As I said, he made his people suffer horribly all so he could posture and not "lose face". I just thought that my professor made some exceptionally well tought out points and showed that there are always two sides to every story/person.

The good news is Raul can't last too long...and as soon as that family is out of power we'll be able to re-establish ties without as much controversy.

The embargo has clearly been a failure. For some reason we insist on isolating a small island where we could have a great deal of economic and social influence, while we engage a hostile regime in Beijing that is a threat to our freedom and hasn't changed in 35 years of our government blowing them.